John Lannan Had Arbitration Hearing Today

Nationals southpaw John Lannan had his arbitration hearing today, tweets MLB.com's Bill Ladson. We'll know soon whether the CAA Sports client will be paid $5.7MM or $5MM in 2012. Lannan's hearing was the first of 2012, and arbitrators Robert Herzog, Elizabeth Neumeier and John Skonier are expected to decide by Thursday according to the AP.

Mr. Westcott: Actually, the closer they are the LESS likely they are to feel compelled to do a deal. The system encourages both parties to be reasonable by forcing the panel to choose one offer or the other. In this case, a split-the-difference agreement would have generated only a $350k savings or addition. Both sides were willing to risk a smaller number (relatively speaking, of course) for the $700k difference. If the parties are several million dollars apart, the risk is much greater and both parties have a greater incentive to compromise.